Come, Geraldine, you can
afford to praise her. Is she not lovely?"
"Yes, I suppose she is handsome," the other answered icily.
"You suppose she is handsome! It is really too bad of you to be prejudiced
against a girl I wanted you to like. As if this poor little Clarissa could
do anybody any harm! But never mind, she must do without your liking. And
now tell me all about George Fairfax. I was so glad to hear your news,
dear, so thoroughly rejoiced."
"There is no occasion for such profound gladness. I could have gone on
existing very well as Geraldine Challoner."
"Of course; but I had much rather see you well married, and your own
mistress; and this is such a good match."
"Yes; from a worldly point of view, I suppose, the affair is
unexceptionable," Geraldine Challoner answered, with persistent
indifference; simulated indifference, no doubt, but not the less provoking
to her sister. "George will be rich by-and-by, and he is well enough off
now. We shall be able to afford a house in one of the streets out of Park
Lane--I have a rooted detestation for both Belgravia and Tyburnia--and a
carriage, and so on; and I shall not be worried as I have been about my
milliner's bills."
"And then you are very fond of him, Geraldine," Lady Laura said, softly.
There were still little romantic impulses in the matron's heart, and this
studied coldness of her sister's tone wounded her.
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